White Teachers and Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education: Struggle, Empowerment, and Transformative Possibilities

• In Event: Racial Literacy, Disrupting Whiteness (Preservice)

Abstract

White educators in the United States are responsible for educating the majority of students of all races nationally. However, these educators are not always culturally relevant and sustaining in theory or practice. While we find it necessary for white educators to enact culturally relevant and sustaining education practices with Black and Indigenous Students of Color (BIPOC) students, we believe it is equally necessary for them to enact these practices with the white students they teach. In this paper, we explore what happens when three white pre-service teachers enact these approaches in a Professional Development School (PDS) and how these outcomes shape their own identities and self-development as educators.

Authors

• Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Shalander L. Samuels, Kean University
  Presenting Author